The Bureau of Meteorology says it is entirely plausible to believe more than 200mm rain fell in just a few hours in Burrumbeet on Sunday night.
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And had the storm which engulfed the region west of Ballarat happened just 10km further east, the there would have been untold damage to property, according to a senior meteorologist.
In Ballarat, there was just 20.6mm of rain recorded at the official weather station at the airport, although the centre of the city was almost entirely bone-dry.
See how the storm unfolded, from 7pm-11pm on Sunday.
A combination of easterly winds (which had earlier caused storms to wreak havoc across Melbourne) and the south-westerly wind change is believed to have been the cause of the fierce drenching, which saw some properties record more than 200mm in just over two hours.
The storm began just after 8pm and It wasn't until the easterly winds took over that the storm dissipated around 10.30pm.
For just less than three hours, the intense storm remained fixed to the west of Lake Burrumbeet.
Watch footage of the storm here (video: Robert Sawyer).
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Richard Russell said the storm event could have been disastrous had it occurred in a populated area.
"Looking back on the radar, there were some intense stationary thunderstorms between Ballarat and Beaufort," he said.
"Normally the figures you are seeing would not seem correct, but these that are coming in today are credible to be honest. It sits well with what we saw on the radar.
"In most cases, storms move with an active front or trough, in this case what seems to be the case.
"The convergent line of winds, the easterly winds, then the south-westerly winds, it just meant it just stopped and the winds kept meeting.
"There's no question that this would have been a significant event over any populated area, and would have caused a significant amount of damage."
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the highest recorded daily rainfall in Victoria has been 375mm at Tanybryn in the Otway Ranges. This was measured in the 24 hour period to 9am 22 March 1983.
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